A common practice for holding various workpieces together to form composite structures comprises securing the individual pieces to a support surface by a plurality of nuts and bolts. This process, including tightening, adjusting and loosening the bolts and nuts, is very time consuming and therefore very expensive.
While there are numerous hold-down type clamps known for holding workpieces, they are usually very complicated and expensive to manufacture. In addition, the mechanisms for securing such clamping devices to a work surface are complex and bulky. Moreover, many of these prior art clamping devices do not provide a quick-acting release mechanism.
Such prior art clamping devices are disclosed in the following U.S. Pat. Nos.: 2,456,100 issued to Wood on Dec. 14, 1948; 2,544,329 issued to Kirk on Mar. 6, 1951; 2,567,436 issued to Lampe on Sept. 11, 1951; 2,574,281 issued to Olson on Nov. 6, 1951; 2,972,476 issued to Blatt on Feb. 21, 1961; 3,170,214 issued to Cochrane on Feb. 23, 1965; 3,237,463 issued to McPherson on Mar. 1, 1966; 3,451,668 issued to Robinson on June 24, 1969; and 4,083,548 issued to Hackbarth on Apr. 11, 1978.